harry reid says there's not. seems to me more of the same ping-pong we've had over the last few days. >> were no closer to steering away from the cliff. we are much closer to the cliff. the president made a round of calls last night to talk to congressional leaders about the need to get something done. no one has that produced in the form of a bill. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is saying this is the first contact he's had from a democrat since thanksgiving. you need unanimous continue sent for a lot of things to happen. >> and we're now hearing that the white house is denying there's a new plan from the president. so the white house and harry reid are both denying scott brown and gopas about this new physical cliff plan which puts us back to square one. you tackled this issue of john boehner's control over his conference. in a really interesting way. you basically said he's a substitute teacher in the sense that even when he disciplines folks like holtzcamp who were insubordinate and ripped them of comm